Missiology is the academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology. It began to be developed as an academic discipline in the 19th century.
The emerging church, sometimes wrongly equated with the "emergent movement" or "emergent conversation", is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st century. Emerging churches can be found around the globe, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. Members come from a number of Christian traditions. Some attend local independent churches or house churches while others worship in traditional Christian denominations. The emerging church favors the use of simple story and narrative. Members of the movement often place a high value on good works or social activism, including missional living. Proponents of the movement believe it transcends labels such as "conservative" and "liberal"; it is sometimes called a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature, its range of standpoints, and commitment to dialogue. Participants seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a "postmodern" society. Disillusionment with the organized and institutional church has led participants to support the deconstruction of modern Christian worship and evangelism, and the nature of modern Christian community.
In Christianity, inculturation is the adaptation of Christian teachings and practices to cultures. This is a term that is generally used by Catholics and the Orthodox, whereas Protestants, especially associated with the World Council of Churches, prefer to use the term "contextual theology".
Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on the injustices committed against African Americans and black South Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.
Catholic Theological Union (CTU) is a Catholic graduate school of theology in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the largest Catholic graduate schools of theology in the English-speaking world and trains men and women for lay and ordained ministry within the Catholic Church. CTU is run and staffed by religious and lay men and women. International students constitute nearly one third of the student body.
David Jacobus Bosch was an influential missiologist and theologian best known for his book Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (1991) — a major work on post-colonial Christian mission. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK), also known by its English abbreviation DRC. On Freedom Day, 27 April 2013, he posthumously received the Order of the Baobab from the President of South Africa "for his selfless struggle for equality ... and his dedication to community upliftment. By doing so, he lived the values of non-racialism against the mainstream of his own culture."
Paul Francis Knitter is an American theologian. He is currently an emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary, where he has served as the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture since 2007. He is also Emeritus Professor of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he taught for 28 years before moving to Union. Knitter is known for his work on religious pluralism and multiple religious belonging, particularly regarding Buddhism and Christianity.
James W. "Jim" Douglass is an American author, activist, and Christian theologian. He is a graduate of Santa Clara University. He and his wife, Shelley Douglass, founded the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, and Mary’s House, a Catholic Worker house in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997 the Douglasses received the Pacem in Terris Award.
George E. "Tink" Tinker is an American Indian scholar of the Osage Nation who taught for more than three decades at the Iliff School of Theology, a United Methodist Church theological school, where he focused his scholarship on the decolonization of American Indian Peoples. The Tinker family name is deeply embedded among the Osage.
Karl Graul was a leader of Leipzig Lutheran mission and a Tamil scholar. He was born in a poor weaver family in Germany. He moved to India as the director of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission in 1849 and there he mastered Tamil.
Marc H. Ellis was an American author, liberation theologian, and a retired university professor of Jewish Studies, professor of history and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He was a visiting professor of several international universities, including the University of Innsbruck, Austria and the United Nations University for Peace, Costa Rica.
Contextual theology or contextualizing theology refers to theology which has responded to the dynamics of a particular context.
Models of Contextual Theology is a book written by Stephen B. Bevans which argues that all Christian theology is contextual and identifies six dominant models of contextual theology.
Environmental theology pertains to "the God-environment relationship and divine expectations of human behavior in relation to the environment".
George Soares-Prabhu was an Indian Jesuit priest, exegete and biblical scholar, particularly known for his work in Indian Hermeneutics of the Christian Scriptures.
Dana Lee Robert is an American historian of Christianity and a missiologist. She is a professor at Boston University, where she has worked since 1984. She was the co-founder of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission in 2001, one of the first university-based Centers on World Christianity in North America. For years, Robert held the School of Theology's Truman Collins Professorship in World Christianity and History of Mission, but in 2022 she was installed in the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship, the highest distinction bestowed upon senior faculty members who remain actively involved in research, scholarship, teaching, and the University’s civic life.
Jerzy Mazur is a Polish Roman Catholic bishop, being the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ełk since 2003. He was previously a missionary, as well as a bishop in Siberia and the titular bishop of Tabunia.
Cathy Ross is a New Zealand-born academic and scholar of missiology. She leads the Pioneer Mission Leadership Training centre of the Church Mission Society, in Oxford, England. She is also canon theologian at Leicester Cathedral. She is the author of Women with a Mission: Rediscovering Missionary Wives in Early New Zealand.
The Protestant and Catholic churches saw that the Lumad and Moro people were suffering and responded by contextualizing liberation theology into what would be called the Theology of Struggle. The theology of struggle was developed by the Christians for National Liberation. The Philippines was colonized by Spain, Japan, and the United States since the 1500s. The theology of struggle was started in the Catholic church as a way of protecting the impoverished from the Marcos regime. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd is a group of Filipino nuns living according to what they call a theology of struggle. The nuns live among the impoverished and work alongside them to build political power, which puts them at odds with the Catholic church and the Filipino government.
Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi is a Puerto Rican theologian, historian, teacher, academic and author. He holds the Frederick E. Roach Chair in World Christianity at Baylor University.
